My top 5

Hi.  I'm an English major at VCU who hasn't really bee in the habit of doing writing on my own recently.  Mostly it's been assignments and the like.  My New Year's resolution is to change that.  However, I'm not particularly useful as a person, so my knowledge of stuff and things is limited to pretty useless stuff, like games.  Since I won't be deterred, I'm going to blog about issues I have with games - both good and bad - for the entire year, one month at a time.  That means that if you're dumb enough to stick around, you'll get 12 posts from me, right?  Wrong.  I'm going to make an initial post talking about my top five favorite games before I actually delve into heavier stuff so you can get to know me a bit better, as well as see my writing style.  That means you're going to see me ramble about nothing important for 13 posts!  Alright, let's begin.

Number five on my list is Metroid Prime.  It's a pretty standard Metroid game; Samus finds Space Pirates on the planet Tallon IV, who plan to weaponize Phazon, a radioactive substance found on the planet that causes mutations.  Samus then takes it upon herself to put a stop to the pirate's mischief, but finds that the main danger on the planet is what the corrupting Phazon has done to it. A well-received FPS for the Gamecube, I see it as a sort of antithesis of modern day shooters.  It's more of a non-linear adventure rather than an actual FPS; the perspective is first-person, but puzzles and exploration take center stage over combat. That's not to say that there is no combat, rather that the combat is less about showering an enemy in bullets, but rather figuring out how to shower the tougher enemies in bullets; most of the bosses and minibosses have tricks up their sleeves that make just shooting them not an option.

A scanning option is often used to provide hints or circumvent the damage reduction entirely.  The Scan Visor actually is one of the things I enjoy most about Metroid Prime; not only is it useful in combat, it reveals interesting aspects about enemies and can be used to scan lore that adds depth from the perspective of both the planet's natives and the planet's invaders.  Some of them are pretty serious, while a handful are pretty lighthearted.  While it does point you in the right direction through scans that pop up from time to time, they're more along the lines of gently nudging you in the right direction and then letting you figure out how to use your new toy to progress as opposed to sending you in a straight line for ten hours.  More than anything though, it's incredibly atmospheric; the graphics have aged well and still look good today, and the music sets the tone for the eerie Chozo Ruins and Sunken Frigate well, drawing you in.  It truly makes you feel as though you're part of something bigger, and isn't that what an adventure is all about?

About the only complaint I have with Metroid Prime is that it's pretty easy.  Some of the bosses can be tricky - Thardus and Omega Pirate - but other than that you can play pretty cautiously and use your upgrades wisely you shouldn't have too much of a problem.  It's on my list over other strong entries into the Metroid series like Metroid Fusion and Super Metroid because of its innovation.  Moving to a third-person perspective helps you feel like you're a part of the game and adding in the multi-faceted Scan Visor makes it seem like an upgrade of the equally atmospheric Super Metroid.  Fusion has a better story, but adding in somebody to talk to - the A.I. Commanding Officer - relieves some of the tension typically found in the isolation of previous Metroid titles.  Both are fantastic games though, and the only really weak entry in the series is Other M.  If you haven't played Metroid or any of its offspring yet, check it out.

Ranking in at number four is Portal.  You are a test subject who wakes up at the urging of an A.I. who gives you a shiny Portal gun and has you solve puzzles with promises of cake (and grief counseling) after you finish. Really, what has been said about this game that hasn't been already said?  It's clever, witty, well-designed, and all those other positive adjectives that reviewers like to toss around.  It's one of the most memorable games of the past decade for all the right reasons.  Moreover, it's incredibly simple and utilizes teaching tools effectively throughout the game to show you the more complex techniques so that you can easily use them later.  It's truly a game that embraces the idea that "less is more."

It's also another game that excels in atmosphere.  It gives you the idea that something is wrong as you go through test chambers and don't see anybody watching you, despite that you have somebody constantly giving you orders and instructions.  This is another example of how it utilizes minimalist design to make things better.  Letting somebody figure things out for themselves is better than just telling them things.  It gives the player a feeling of discovery and wonderment as they discover more about the game.  Letting somebody work for a reward gives a more gratifying feeling than having things dropped into their laps.

Mother 3 is appropriately my third-favorite game.  Though it was never released outside of Japan, a translation patch by industry professional Clyde Mandelin was released a few years ago.  If you haven't checked it out, do so soon!  Mother is the name for the classic SNES RPG Earthbound in Japan, and it's a sequel to Earthbound (Mother 2).  It's a coming-of-age tale that centers around Lucas, a child who lives in a quiet village that gets invaded by the forces of the Pig King.  It has a heavy emphasis on the theme of nature vs technology and is easily one of the most emotional games I've ever played.  It's really hard to describe what is so great about the game without significant spoilers about it, but I suppose what most draws me in - about the series as a whole as well - is the mix of light-hearted dialogue and tone mixed in with surprisingly mature themes.  It’s one of the few games that isn’t a visual novel type game that has dialogue that simply a joy to read.  It also manages to be a genuinely tragic game despite having limited graphics, as it’s a Game Boy Advance game.  The game’s slogan is “No crying until the end,” and what a fitting slogan it is.

Number 2 on my list is Rayman Origins.  It's a fairly recent 2-D platformer that was released on multiple consoles - I bought mine on Steam - and received critical acclaim.  It's pretty simple; Rayman and pals' snoring wake up a bunch of zombies that live below him who then overreact to this minor inconvenience by taking over the world and it's up to Rayman to give these cranky neighbors the boot.  This game is just top to bottom amazing.  It looks great, plays great, feels great, sounds great, and is just damn great.  The difficulty is solidly paced, starting out simple but challenging, and then ramping up significantly while teaching you how to cope with the new obstacles by granting new powers that affect how you traverse them.

It’s another charming game, with simple themes for its levels – a hot/cold level in the same vein as Hailfire Peaks from Banjo-Tooie is portrayed as being a spicy Mexican kitchen and an icy cocktail lounge respectively – and they’re all hard as hell.  Again, it’s paced well so when you have trouble with later parts it feels justified, and the settings combined with these tricky parts ensure that the game is far from forgettable.  The controls are great, the animations are fluid and charming, and everything about the game is brimmed with charm and plenty of appeal to nearly every kind of gamer.  The game’s only flaws are that the Tetris level from E3 didn’t make an appearance, and director Michel Ancel wasn’t a playable character.

Finally, the big one; my favorite video game of all time is Machinarium, a minimalist point-and-click adventure game from Amanita Design – also responsible for Botanicula – and is available on Steam, PSN, and Playstation Vita.  It’s a simple-point and click that has you navigating a city populated entirely by robots.  Part of the game’s charm is its simplicity and minimalist design; the journey throughout the city is more along the lines of framework than actual story as you find out absolutely nothing about the characters or story, and there’s literally only one word uttered throughout the game.  This lack of cramming exposition and story down your throat allows you to appreciate the game’s sights more.  The game was made for under $1,000 and the visuals were all hand-drawn in order to cut down on cost.  The result is a game with a unique look and incredible amounts of detail.  This also allows the characters to show off more and be expressive when combined with the absence of dialogue.  It really goes to show how much character you can put into a game when you don’t have to be concerned with story or graphics or complex gameplay.  On the subject of gameplay, only a handful of puzzles fall victim to the “adventure game logic” that appears in titles such as Anna.  Practically every puzzle only uses items found in that room, and items that carry over into later areas have their purposes pretty much dropped into your laps.  Machinarium gives you several examples of how to use your built-in powers of stretching and eating objects to use later so that you’ll have a good handle on them later.

Like Metroid Prime before it, the music lends much of the atmosphere to the game (I own the OST on vinyl, and oh, what a splendid acquisition that was!).  It synchronizes with the idea of exploration, giving off unusual tones and incredibly versatile sounds that compliment the equally diverse areas of the city.  It puts much more of a focus on music though, having radios and bands play music at various different points that begin to play after a puzzle is solved, or are used to solve puzzles.  It’s less of music being the puzzle and more along the lines of solving all of the puzzles plays music, which then progresses the game.  I love this about the game because music is such a huge force in the world, both in and outside of video gaming.  Most of the puzzles seem to play along these lines, being less of “rub every object in your inventory against every surface in the room” and more along the lines of solving actual puzzles.  It’s great to see a studio realizing how to do a point and click puzzle game right, and the fact that it’s got a great atmosphere that draws you in truly allows it to wear the title of “adventure” in its genre description proudly.

 

I hope this first post has given you an idea as to who I am and how I write, and I hope you come back soon.  As mentioned before, another post will come this month, the contents of which will talk about stories in games.  Hopefully you'll look forward to it!